And what religion should you be?

[steven lloyd]

Like I said before, to say "religion is bad" is like saying "Guns are bad".

Not exactly a good comparison. You are trying to create a juxtaposition between a social construct and a weapon. Like comparing marriage to a shovel ...


Hmmm. I better think about this one.

[Mr. Personality]

I keep hearing "Religion kills" (not necessarily from you). I keep hearing "Guns kill" (again). Maybe it's a glib comparison, but it's there. Who is to blame the organization/weapon or the people behind it?

[steven lloyd]

I keep hearing "Religion kills" (not necessarily from you). I keep hearing "Guns kill" (again). Maybe it's a glib comparison, but it's there. Who is to blame the organization/weapon or the people behind it?

I see and understand the point you are tring to make and agree with that much. However, yes we can blame an organization because it is led by people and it is made up of people who suscribe to the paradigm of the organization and follow the direction of the organization's leaders.

[Mr. Personality]

So do you blame the idea of organizing?

[steven lloyd]

So do you blame the idea of organizing?

:dyinglaughing:

I know you're just wanting me to say religion isn't a bad thing, and I've already agreed that "in itself" (like-minded people with similar spiritual beliefs getting together to share those beliefs) it isn't. But we've both seen what can become of it, and even on this board we've seen the examples of judgmentalism and intolerance created and perpetuated by it.

So, no I do not blame religion. Again, I blame the people who seek power and control and have used relgion as a means to their own political end and I blame the people who never challenge what they've been told to believe and blindly follow and allow themselves to be used.

[Poindexter]

The common between guns and religon is they both pander to human's basic need to sooth fear of the unknown.

Put a gun in most peoples hand and deep down they like how it feels, I know it sounds morbid but until you go to the range and fire some shots save your righteousnous. Similarily, take faith out for a spin and deep down it does make people feel better. Faith that at the end you're not simply worm food is a soothing thought.

Now stick a gun in the hand of someone with faith, and the real trouble begins.

[Mr. Personality]

So do you blame the idea of organizing?

:dyinglaughing:

I know you're just wanting me to say religion isn't a bad thing, and I've already agreed that "in itself" (like-minded people with similar spiritual beliefs getting together to share those beliefs) it isn't. But we've both seen what can become of it, and even on this board we've seen the examples of judgmentalism and intolerance created and perpetuated by it.

So, no I do not blame religion. Again, I blame the people who seek power and control and have used relgion as a means to their own political end and I blame the people who never challenge what they've been told to believe and blindly follow and allow themselves to be used.

I don't want you to say anything other than what you think and feel. I think you've nailed it down with the second paragraph there, but the same goes for politics, schools, businesses and charities. Of course, the thing they all have in common, religion included, is money/power.

[steven lloyd]

I think you've nailed it down with the second paragraph there, but the same goes for politics, schools, businesses and charities. Of course, the thing they all have in common, religion included, is money/power.

Yes, religion or the idea of religion in itself is not to blame. It’s what people do with it, and what some people allow it to do to them (stop asking questions of what’s really right or wrong and follow blindly). As you say, the same thing can happen in politics, schools, businesses, charities, etc.



*especially politics

[rideforever]

There's some big differences between religion and gayness.

Religion causes harm, supposably gayness does not.
Religion is a choice, supposably gayness is not.

If something causes harm, I have no problem with insulting it. If something does not cause harm, I try not to insult it.

1 - Religion causes harm the same way money causes harm. It's not the belief, it's the manner in which people twist it.
2 - SUPPOSEDLY. For the love of god or gay it's SUPPOSEDLY.

1 - religion itself does cause harm.

Makes people think they have a better idea than other people on how the other people should live their lives.

Fullfills people's urge to be good without having to actually be good

Encourages people to work now and miss out on fun stuff, so they can be happy after they die. Working towards the future can be good, but working towards death is probably a waste. Not to mention, if I created people, I'd want them to entertain me, not sit around being boring, sucking my ****. If I was judgeing people, I'd not like those who took happiness from others, and possibly also those who wasted their lives. Both these 'crimes' are often caused by religious people, who use religion as their excuse to do it.


2 - Thansk bud, I was wonderin how to spell that. Good thing I got it pretty close, else you woulda had none idealera whit I wis talkin a bute. This is prime example of how you're focusing on how I said it, and not what I was saying. A very religious thing to do. Since they make important decisions based on interpretations of interpretations ... etc etc.... of old books, they have to be very carefull to get the exact meaning behind the words, and still often mess it up as can be seen by the # of different interpretations out there. But in the case of an informal discussion, I think the context is more important than the words. We are talking about religious people vs gay people. I talked about the harm caused by either group. Doesn't matter if it's bad people using religion as an excuse to cause harm, or if it's religion that brainwashes people and makes them harmful. The fact that you ignored is that religion is involved in much more harm than gayness is.

[Mr. Personality]

1 - The same can be said for politics. Should we get rid of all political systems too?
2 - "supposably" is right up there with "I don't like the way there doing things" and "once and a while" as far as pet peeves about writing. Had nothing to do with the topic at hand. A prime example of how you're more worried about showing up others than actually getting to a point (said with much love).
Edit:
P.S. I'm not religious.

[rideforever]

1 - The same can be said for politics. Should we get rid of all political systems too?
2 - "supposably" is right up there with "I don't like the way there doing things" and "once and a while" as far as pet peeves about writing. Had nothing to do with the topic at hand. A prime example of how you're more worried about showing up others than actually getting to a point (said with much love).
Edit:
P.S. I'm not religious.

1 - Out of context again. I was talking about why religion bashing is good, but gay bashing is not. It's ok to bash religion cause religion causes harm, so the bashing could cause a reduction of harm. It's not ok to bash gays because they don't cause much harm, so the bashing probably won't cause a reduction of harm. I also went on about how religion is a choice and gayness suppos... umm... how do I spell that again? lol... is not a choice... 1 more reason why gay bashing helps nothing, but religion bashing could help.

Off topic, but just for fun... I think our political system could use a major overhaul. mostly I'd like to see voting based on issues, not people, and I don't think it'd be that hard to make that happen.

2 - lol, my pet peeve is people who promote in-efficiency, like wasting time getting the perfect spelling, when semi-good spelling will suffice.

Yes you're right, your comment "had nothing to do with the topic at hand." aha. don't understand the whole showing up others thing. Don't you think I'd try harder to spell good and gramar right if I cared about looking good? and "actually getting to the point" um... I think you're backwards on that one, I was on the point, you were off point, so I reminded you what the point was.

[Mr. Personality]

1 - The same can be said for politics. Should we get rid of all political systems too?
2 - "supposably" is right up there with "I don't like the way there doing things" and "once and a while" as far as pet peeves about writing. Had nothing to do with the topic at hand. A prime example of how you're more worried about showing up others than actually getting to a point (said with much love).
Edit:
P.S. I'm not religious.

1 - Out of context again. I was talking about why religion bashing is good, but gay bashing is not. It's ok to bash religion cause religion causes harm, so the bashing could cause a reduction of harm. It's not ok to bash gays because they don't cause much harm, so the bashing probably won't cause a reduction of harm. I also went on about how religion is a choice and gayness suppos... umm... how do I spell that again? lol... is not a choice... 1 more reason why gay bashing helps nothing, but religion bashing could help.

Off topic, but just for fun... I think our political system could use a major overhaul. mostly I'd like to see voting based on issues, not people, and I don't think it'd be that hard to make that happen.

2 - lol, my pet peeve is people who promote in-efficiency, like wasting time getting the perfect spelling, when semi-good spelling will suffice.

Yes you're right, your comment "had nothing to do with the topic at hand." aha. don't understand the whole showing up others thing. Don't you think I'd try harder to spell good and gramar right if I cared about looking good? and "actually getting to the point" um... I think you're backwards on that one, I was on the point, you were off point, so I reminded you what the point was.

1 - So, it's ok to bash a major group of people because what a few have done in their own, individual idea of God's name. That sounds well thought out and genuinely interested in the betterment of mankind.

2 - It's not about spelling, supposably is not a word.

[rideforever]

1 - So, it's ok to bash a major group of people because what a few have done in their own, individual idea of God's name. That sounds well thought out and genuinely interested in the betterment of mankind.

2 - It's not about spelling, supposably is not a word.

1 - ahaha, it sounds worse when you put it that way. I think religion causes more harm than good, that is the main reason it's ok to bash it. I disagree that it's 'a few' or even 'a small portion' of religious people that cause harm specially when considering the harm they cause themselves, and the negative effect religion has had on politics. Politics affect a major group of people. I think religion causes more harm than good just for the average person, whether religious or not. This is without even considering the holy rapists and holy war-mongers. With them thrown in, I feel very strongly that religion causes more harm than good.

2 - it's a word that is spelt wrong. I know it's a word because it conveyed something to you, and you not only made the correct guess of what I meant, but also to seemed quite sure you knew what I meant. I'm all about function, form is usually a waste of time, and the way I spelt it, it still functioned just fine, except it was quicker for me to write since I didn't bother looking it up or spell checking, so actually functioned better than the propellorly spelled version of what I meant.

[Mr. Personality]

1 - So, it's ok to bash a major group of people because what a few have done in their own, individual idea of God's name. That sounds well thought out and genuinely interested in the betterment of mankind.

2 - It's not about spelling, supposably is not a word.

1 - ahaha, it sounds worse when you put it that way. I think religion causes more harm than good, that is the main reason it's ok to bash it. I disagree that it's 'a few' or even 'a small portion' of religious people that cause harm specially when considering the harm they cause themselves, and the negative effect religion has had on politics. Politics affect a major group of people. I think religion causes more harm than good just for the average person, whether religious or not. This is without even considering the holy rapists and holy war-mongers. With them thrown in, I feel very strongly that religion causes more harm than good.

2 - it's a word that is spelt wrong. I know it's a word because it conveyed something to you, and you not only made the correct guess of what I meant, but also to seemed quite sure you knew what I meant. I'm all about function, form is usually a waste of time, and the way I spelt it, it still functioned just fine, except it was quicker for me to write since I didn't bother looking it up or spell checking, so actually functioned better than the propellorly spelled version of what I meant.

1 - I think you tend to look at the worst of the worst without realizing that the majority of religious people are quite average everyday people who are just like you and me.

2 - Supposably is as much a word a irregardless.

[Glacier]

I think religion causes more harm than good, that is the main reason it's ok to bash it.

And John Right thinks atheists, gays, and most Castanetters cause more harm than good...